


Lifetime versus Showtime

by Lady Angel (dameange)



Category: Leverage, White Collar
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-06
Updated: 2010-09-06
Packaged: 2017-10-11 12:58:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/112668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dameange/pseuds/Lady%20Angel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maggie Collins runs into her old friend, Elizabeth Burke, and thinks about a few things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lifetime versus Showtime

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by [info]lovesrogue36's prompt: Leverage/White Collar, Maggie, El, the two women used to commiserate over their husbands' jobs. This is probably not what Rogue had in mind, but it's what my muse told me to write. What can I say, I'm easy that way. {eg}

  
Maggie couldn't believe her eyes. "Elizabeth? Elizabeth Burke?"

The stunning brunette sitting at the outdoor café turned at her name, smiling at first in confusion before bright blue eyes shone with recognition and welcome. "Maggie Ford!"

Maggie enthusiastically returned the hello hug, pulling back. "Actually, it's back to Collins now."

Elizabeth, bless her, merely nodded.

It had been hard for Maggie, keeping in touch with friends after the death of her and Nathan's son. Sam had been their world for so long and with him gone and Nathan drinking himself into a stupor nearly every day, Maggie had let things slip. Like her friendship with her college roommate, Elizabeth.

"Have you eaten lunch?" Elizabeth asked, pulling her to the table. "Would you like to join me?" She waved to the waitress standing with a menu in hand. "I just got here and was about to order."

Maggie grinned. "I'd love to." She thanked the waitress as the young woman easily grabbed another menu before leaving with their drink orders. Maggie turned back to Elizabeth. "How are you? And Peter?"

Elizabeth beamed. "He's wonderful, but busy as always."

"The life of an FBI agent," Maggie commiserated, remembering how they had spent quite a bit of time bitching to each other about their work-obsessed husbands. Now she thought about how Nathan was . . . not on the opposite side of the law, but definitely working outside of it. While they waited for their lunch, catching up on each other's lives. Elizabeth now ran her own catering and event planning business. Her friend told her how it was amazing how much frustration something supposedly fun could be. In turn, she told Elizabeth about the perils of working for an insurance company as an art expert, one of which was being arrested in Kiev for supposedly stealing a priceless Faberge egg.

Lunch had just been served when the chair next to Elizabeth, across from Maggie, was pulled out. Maggie watched in shock as a gorgeous, younger man, wavy chestnut hair, and brilliant blue eyes cradled Elizabeth's face and kissed her for all he was worth. She fully expected Elizabeth to haul back and punch him. Instead, she melted into his kiss. And it wasn't just a "wow, he's a good kisser" type of melting. It was the "hi, this is a wonderful surprise, I love how you kiss me" type of melting. Elizabeth knew this man, she was sure of it. And it shocked her to the core. Mere moments before her friend had been telling a sweetly funny story about her husband surprising her with tickets to Belize for their anniversary, but now she was kissing this man like a longtime lover. Maggie had no idea what to think.

She was still staring in shock when he finally pulled back.

Those blue eyes were twinkling and glazed, his beautiful mouth curved. "Okay, that was just supposed to be a distraction."

Elizabeth grinned, fingers going to trace his smooth cheek. "Well, you certainly distracted me."

They both chuckled, soft and low, heads bent closely together.

"Are you tailing someone?" Elizabeth asked, still not taking her eyes off him.

"Uh huh. I'm pretty sure he made me." He grinned at her. "Thank God for serendipity."

Elizabeth smiled again, but it was obvious that it wasn't until his eyes darted towards Maggie that she remembered that they weren't alone. "Oh my God, Maggie. I'm sorry." She turned, but did not radiate shame at being caught kissing a man not her husband. Instead, she was flustered about her manners. "I'm so sorry I didn't introduce you. Maggie, meet Neal Caffery. Neal, this is Maggie Collins, my college roommate."

He held out his hand and smile. The hand was that of an artist, long-fingered and elegant. The smile was that of a charming rogue. "Nice to meet you, Maggie."

"Likewise," was all she could say. Far be it for her to pass judgment on Elizabeth's life, but Peter had always been good to her. He had even bailed Nathan out of jail once, making the charges disappear. She almost turned back to her lunch, even considered leaving, but then Elizabeth said the strangest thing.

"Where's Peter?"

"Across the street." He caught Elizabeth's chin just in time so that she couldn't turn her head.

Maggie only barely just stopped herself.

"Rowland is still watching me. All of his attention is focused on us right now, he hasn't spotted Peter yet."

Elizabeth nodded, turning back to Maggie. "Neal is Peter's partner."

Maggie nodded, tightly keeping her lips clenched so that she wouldn't remark about what an utter cliché it was for Elizabeth to cheat on her husband with his partner. It was like a Lifetime movie or something. Then she had to stop her eyes from rolling when Neal snagged Elizabeth's fork and proceeded to feed her lunch. Elizabeth was just as nauseating, one hand on his lean thigh and the other stroking the curls around his ear. Just the thought of trying to eat the rest of her once delicious Cobb salad was enough to make Maggie gag. She frantically thought of a graceful way to exit the situation.

That was until she saw Peter strolling up out of the corner of her eye. Then all she thought about was making a quick exit before things got ugly.

Only, they didn't.

Peter walked right up to see Neal nuzzling Elizabeth, but didn't even bat an eye. Instead, he leaned over and kissed her himself. "Hey, honey. Weird coincidence, huh?" Then he turned to her, smiling in recognition. "Maggie, hi."

"Hi." It was all she could say, stunned. Where were the jealous rants? The accusations? Surely he couldn't have missed the way Neal and Elizabeth were in each other's space? The way Neal had been so intimately feeding his wife? The nuzzling and petting?

"Did Rowland make you?" Neal asked, smiling up at Peter, as if completely unaware that Peter could pull out his gun and shoot him at any time and be justified.

"Nah." Peter was smug as he stood with his arms akimbo, eyes looking into the distance. "Got Cruz and Jones tailing him now. And another two units backing them up."

Neal grinned with delight. "Does that mean I can finish lunch with El?"

"Yeah, Peter, could you and Neal stay to have lunch with us?" Elizabeth had the nerve to look at up her husband through her flirting lashes, as if she didn't have her hand curled intimately around another man's thigh.

Peter bent a gentle, loving look at her, then bent to buss her lips. "I wish we could, honey, but we've got to close this case soon. The brass is breathing down Hughes' neck --"

"And that means he's breathing down Peter's, so that means no lunch for me," Neal mourned, also glancing up at Peter through his lashes.

Maggie felt her jaw drop. It was the same exact flirtatious look Elizabeth had given her husband! And the look, the same gentle loving look Peter gave his wife was then bestowed on his partner!

"I'll make it up to you." Peter grumped in resignation, but that glow in his eyes said something else. "To both of you."

Holy shit. Maggie stared.

"C'mon, we gotta get going." Peter kissed his wife good-bye, then watched with a indulgent grin as Neal did the same. The two men walked away, shoulder to shoulder, in perfect synchronization.

Maggie turned back to see Elizabeth grinning smugly at her. She cleared her throat. "So, Peter clearly has a type."

Elizabeth threw her head back and laughed. "He says he likes 'em brunette, blue eyed, and smart."

Maggie could only nod, mood turning pensive.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Elizabeth murmured, picking up her fork once again.

"Nate." She hesitated, but seeing the patient, encouraging light in her friend's eyes made her go on. After all, if she was understanding things right, Elizabeth was the best person to talk about this. "Nate has this interesting . . . relationship."

"He's with a man and woman?" Elizabeth said it so easily.

Maggie nodded. "Eliot and Sophie."

"You're trying to understand it?"

Maggie twiddled with her fork. "Not exactly."

Elizabeth was leaning forward now, her face alight with curiosity, but not prying.

"He's," she cleared her throat, embarrassed and turned on and confused. "He's asked that I, uhm, he said that . . ." For a strong, independent, modern woman, she was starting to feel like an easily shocked Victorian maiden.

"He's asked you to join them?" Elizabeth murmured, then solved the problem with a wicked grin. "Wow, he's not greedy at all, is he?"

All of the tension left her body in whoosh with the slightly hysterical giggle that burst forth.

Elizabeth was laughing too. But then she sobered, just the tiniest bit, taking her hand in a sisterly grip. "Mags, you only live once. Try it, if you don't like it, you can always walk away."

"Is that what you thought when you three . . ." She was curious to know, but was surprised when Elizabeth's smile softened.

"No." Elizabeth grinned at her. "We knew going in there was no going back for us. Not with the way Neal . . . and not with Peter . . ." It seemed it was Elizabeth's turn to speak in phrases and half-sentences.

"So," Maggie nervously turned her hand so that she was gripping Elizabeth's now too. "You did this for Peter? To keep him?"

"Oh no." Elizabeth was shaking her head, the smile was on her lips again. "I wasn't sacrificing anything or making concessions. I wasn't even really worried that Peter would leave me. It was just that Peter was tearing himself apart and Neal was unhappy, so, I thought, why not? I definitely got more out of the deal than I thought I would." She winked salaciously. "Watching Peter and Neal together is incredibly hot."

This time, Maggie threw her head back to laugh. She definitely had things to think about.

The End


End file.
